Project: Room V, an interactive sound installation. At its core, Room V invites its audience to intervene with the music by penetrating and manipulating the sound with their presence and with their movement. It creates a unique opportunity to experience the subtle temporal and spatial qualities of music.

This installation intends to broaden and confront the way we listen to and understand contemporary classical music, to stimulate new approaches and to nurture an interest in this particular art form.

Room V is based on the acoustic composition Octuor No. 3, which has been especially composed for this occasion. The artistic challenge consists of writing music, which is not only success-ful in the context of a concert but also in a non-linear unfolding, within an installation setting. The composition is scored for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trombone, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and hand percussion.

The visitors of this installation enter an empty and neutral space. Equipped with wireless headphones, they find the entire ensemble set up: eight chairs and music stands with scores–only the musicians are missing. The environment feels particularly silent and still. However, soon after the person enters, a lively and sonorous world opens and the composition emerges through the visitor's headphones. As they move throughout the room, the visitor gains increasingly access to the inner structures of the music. Sound becomes concrete and malleable, lending the listener the impression of a physical reality that can be touched and felt. Invisibly, two cameras trace the visitor's movement and transfer it as data to a computer. The composition has been mapped to the software Max/MSP & SoftVNS, which evaluates the information and triggers or modifies the sound files accordingly. This music streams back to each visitor, seamlessly conducted in real time.

The development of these technical attributes has been possible thanks to an artist residency at the GMEM "Centre National de Création Musicale," Marseille, France. Programming and technical supervision: Charles Bascou.

The installation has been on view during the Festival Les Musiques in Marseille: May 5 - 22nd, 2007, Galerie District, Marseilles.

Concert Performances of the Octuor No 3
Festival Les Musiques
Ensemble Polychronie, Laurent Melin.

May 5, 2007, Galerie District, Marseilles
May 19, 2007, "Face à la mer," The Camargo Foundation, Cassis.
www.gmem.org

Room V is the second work in a series of installations based on this exploration. Room II was on view in the Fall of 2004 at the Médiathèque du Valais in Martigny, Switzerland (see also www.krosenberger.ch).